Saturday, November 12, 2011

I have a book called “American Wildlife Illustrated” from
1940 that sits on my book shelf with all of my other aging natural history
references. Some of the books are as new as 2010 but for every day that goes by
there is a fact, a theory or a matter of taxonomic nomenclature that becomes wrong,
disproved or obsolete. Printed material is old school. Your digital Audubon
Guides can be updated when needed.

When I started guiding in the Everglades
in the 90’s there was a bird that everyone in the swamps called the Louisiana
Heron. I was told it was also called aTricolored Heron (Egretta tricolor),but people can be stubborn and despite
the bird carrying a name of another state, the locals were content to keep the
traditional name. I took a few years off from guiding and returned again in
2007. When I pointed to a heron and called it a Louisiana Heron you would have
thought I called a Badger a Buffalo.
“It’s a Tricolored Heron. Ain’t no one calls it Louisiana Heron no more.” Ok
then. Tricolored it is.

To be fair the name change had been approved by the American
Ornithologist’s Union in 1983 so everyone had
ample time to acclimate to the new colorful name. Why the change? Eliminating
local geographic names was deemed more appropriate. After all, the “Louisiana
Heron” is found from the eastern seaboard of the United
States, south through Texas
and in a few spots in Central and South America.
The three colors of the Tricolored Heron include a white belly, a powdery blue
body and a reddish patch on the back.

There are still some old school birders who prefer
“Louisiana Heron” but Tricolored Heron is certainly the norm. What you won’t
see or hear anywhereis someone
petitioning for a name change to “Mullet Crested Heron”.

I was wrong. I can admit it. Normally I would say “I don’t know what that is.” but in this case I was quite sure that the Wood Stork (Mycte...

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Hey! Look at me!

I was born and raised just west of the Everglades. Growing up at the Florida Monkey Sanctuary, a 10-acre, private non-profit organization owned and operated by my parents.
My experience at the sanctuary involved not only working with hundreds of primates of various species, but also provided the opportunity to become immersed in the natural history of the area, where the sanctuary alone was home to Sandhill Cranes, Wood Storks, Indigo Snakes, River Otters and abundance of other native wildlife. Leaving the subtropics for colder climates, I attended the University of Vermont and graduated with a BS in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology. I returned to southwestern Florida and guided for the Everglades Day Safari from 1998-2000 before once again trading sandals for snowshoes in Vermont where I worked for six years as a Park Ranger at Lowell Lake State Park in Londonderry, VT. and for several years as the Director of the Vermont Institute of Natural Science in Manchester, VT.
Now I'm back in Florida and I’ve returned with a vengeance, which I keep caged like an angry monkey with a bucket full of poop and deadly accuracy.